The ‘skeleton waiting’ meme might well have been doing the rounds among Liverpool supporters on social media over the past few days and weeks.
For all that’s going right on the pitch, fans’ patience has been tested to the last when it comes to the contract situations surrounding Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk, whose current deals all expire at the end of this season.
FSG are playing a high-stakes game when it comes to the trio’s futures, with the prospect of all three walking away on free transfers in 2025 somehow still a possibility.
Let’s look at each player’s individual situation and evaluate the odds (just as you can do by visiting TG Casino) as to whether or not they’re likely to remain at Liverpool for the start of the 2025/26 campaign.
The captain turns 34 next July and is currently the Reds’ second-highest earner on £220,000 per week (Capology), so on the surface it might be understandable if FSG were reluctant to commit such high wages to a player who’s rapidly approaching his mid-30s.
However, Van Dijk has been arguably Liverpool’s most transformative signing of the modern era, turning a porous defence into a formidable bastion of solidity almost overnight and forming the bedrock of the success which ensued under Jurgen Klopp.
As per CaughtOffside, the Dutch centre-back has indicated that he wants to stay at Anfield and is seeking a new two-year deal with ‘favourable financial conditions’.
Verdict: With Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez boasting unenviable track records in terms of injury, and Jarell Quansah enduring a difficult season, it’d be highly remiss of Liverpool not to extend Van Dijk’s contract. We reckon he signs on the dotted line.
The Egyptian recently blasted his way into fourth place on the club’s all-time scoring list, with fans and pundits calling for FSG to ‘give Mo his dough’. At £350,000 per week (Capology), that’s quite a lot of dough, but rarely have Liverpool had a player who’s so unquestionably deserving of it.
Salah is still only 32 and, given his supreme fitness, he looks well capable of excelling at an elite level for a few more years. He hasn’t been afraid to speak publicly about his situation at Anfield, with his evident dismay over the (then) lack of a contract offer in late November hinting that he’s keen to remain at the club.
Verdict: He might be tempted to the Saudi Pro League in time, but a forward who’s already struck 19 goals this season and set up another 15 belongs at the top level in Europe. We think the winger will stay for at least another year, possibly two.
At 26 and with Real Madrid lurking, Trent’s situation is markedly different to that of Van Dijk and Salah, who are both approaching the twilight of their careers and don’t have a big European name waiting to prise them from Anfield.
At £180,000 per week (Capology), the England right-back earns significantly less than those two, and there have been reports of Liverpool potentially giving him the most lucrative contract ever handed to a Premier League player, with a rumoured weekly take-home wage of £400,000.
The lure of the Bernabeu could be difficult to resist, but so too might the opportunity to become permanent captain after Van Dijk. Time is still on Trent’s side where that ambition is concerned.
Verdict: We’re not as confident about the 26-year-old signing a new deal as we are with the other two, but ultimately we believe that the attraction of becoming an all-time great at his boyhood club, and the Reds’ prosperous fortunes under Arne Slot, will eventually see him commit to a contract extension.
The post Staying or going? Predicting the contract outcomes for Trent, Salah and Van Dijk at Liverpool appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.
